Western-Black-Rhino-Declared-Extinct

25/07/11

Wild black rhinos were declared extinct, according to the latest assessment by experts at a leading conservation group. The International Union for Conservation of Nature said the western black rhino, native to West Africa, no longer exists and claimed that a quarter of all other mammal species are at risk of extinction.

Its updated "red list" of threatened species, the gold standard for animal and plant conservation, classified the Central African white rhino as "possibly extinct in the wild," and the Javan rhino is also making a last stand after Vietnamese poachers killed the last of its subspecies last year.

"Human beings are stewards of the earth, and we are responsible for protecting the species that share our environment," Simon Stuart, head of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, said in a statement.